Hero to Zero
by MovingtoRainbowSerenade
Summary: When Link wakes up from being the Hero of Time, he's met with a very different reality than the one he is used to. With no memories of this new place, he is forced to rely on Sheik to guide him. Link soon realizes that he misses the dream. OoC: Link/Sheik


"B-back," Link whispered. He shifted, groaning softly. His body gave a dull ache as though he hadn't moved in years. Slowly, he opened his eyes, pulled away from his adventure. It had been all he had known, all he had dreamed of. His vision was foggy, but he could make out a man with that bright blonde hair. Man. No. With such long hair flowing down his back, it was hard to believe it was really a man. Still, his body was masculine, in a way. It must have been Zelda in disguise. Link didn't understand why, though. Wasn't he supposed to be a kid now? "Sheik?"

He touched his chest, finding he hadn't grown younger. In fact, he was exactly the same aside from his clothes. They were no longer the heroic green tunic. Instead, in its place was a dirty white t-shirt that looked like it had seen better days, and a pair of green boxer shorts.

This place certainly wasn't any home he had seen before. He was laying on a ratty, old couch that was brown and puke-yellow with burnt orange in an old-fashioned flower pattern. It must have been old and well used, but the springs pinched. No matter which way Link tried to shift, they would stab him as though they were trying to get revenge for something. The rest of the place wasn't much better. A dark green chair sat in the corner. It actually looked decent, though. Comfortable. Used, yes, but not as bad as the couch.

An old, tiny television sat under the small window that was filled with so much dust and cobwebs that it looked like fog had settled outside. The TV wasn't much better dust-wise. Cords were scattered about the floor. An older looking game system sat in front of it with game cartridges scattered about the floor in no real order or section. One cord was to a lamp that sat next to the couch. The lamp was missing its lampshade, however, and instead the lamp was more-or-less a gold stand with a light bulb on top.

Around the lamp were various magazines and papers. Junk mail. Recycling. Garbage? It all seemed to mold into one another. Link wasn't sure if it was trash or treasure. On the table in front of him, it was the same story. Soda cans, papers, wrappers and various other items like remotes, gloves and what looked like a hair tie were scattered about the wood surface, hiding most of the table.

From where Link was laying, he could see a door. It was open, revealing a tiny bathroom that looked just as cluttered with makeup, soaps, shampoos and hair products, clothes. He could also see a hallway, which he could only imagine led to more clutter and mess. Sheik raised an eyebrow at Link before prodding his head with the spatula. "You awake finally? Doing okay there, Link?"

Link's eyes finally went back to the man, who he knew as… "Zelda, why are you dressed like that?"

The man didn't seem that enthused. "Dumbass, wake up. It's me. Sheik."

"… yeah, Sheik…was Zelda in disguise- to run from Ganondorf."

"No, Sheik. Twin brother of Zelda. Who's running from anyone?" Sheik rolled his eyes. "That man owns so much of the world, I doubt we could go anywhere he doesn't own. Not that we'd have enough money to get the hell out of here anyway." He glanced back to the other. "You had quite a dream there, huh?"

Link held his head. "Dream?" Had it all just been that? A dream? "Where am I?"

Sheik sighed and flipped the eggs in the pan. Okay, so maybe Link had been in a bad accident, but this was a little more than Sheik had bargained for. "Look," he said, "We're in our apartment. You live with Zelda and me. Some Gerudo thugs hit you pretty hard, and you've been sleeping for like three days. But now you're awake. Welcome to the real world. So, if you please, can we stop it with all the forgetting?" It was starting to twinge a nerve.

How could he forget his own... well, Sheik was sure Link would come around. He sighed and held out a plate with eggs, toast and bacon. "Here. Maybe if you eat something, it'll help you wake up," he suggested, going back to making more food since he had given up his plate to the confused blonde.

Link nodded slowly and ate, eyeing the things in the apartment with interest. He couldn't seem to remember any of it. Why couldn't he remember any of this? If this was his so called life, then why did everything look so unfamiliar to him. He did recognize the walls, the smells, the sounds. Glancing back over to Sheik, he looked over him again. He did remember Sheik, but not in jeans and a t-shirt. "What day is it?"

"Saturday."

"… and you're a guy?"

Sheik shook his head and let out a soft sigh. "You're lucky you don't have a job. You can't go out like this. I knew we should have taken you to a hospital, but we don't have the money to pay the hospital bills." He stood in front of Link and lowered himself down to the other. "Do you really remember nothing? Nothing about me? Zelda? Anything?"

He stared back at Sheik, feeling suddenly very shy and stupid. "I think the things I remember are probably wrong anyway."

The man gave a soft, understanding nod before standing straight once more. "Well, keep asking questions. I mean, maybe telling you things will help you remember, right? Yes, I'm a guy. Zelda's brother. I did mention that, though." So, they weren't the same person. Link ate the food, trying to get a grasp on this new reality, but nothing came to him. Or maybe this was the dream? When he woke up, he would be back in his world, defending Hyrule against monsters… against Ganondorf.

He stood and went to the sink and stared at the pile of dirty dishes for a moment. Without a second thought, he began scrubbing them. Sheik, who was at the small, two-person table in the corner, looked over to the noise in surprise. "What are you doing?"

Link didn't want to answer that this place was a rat-hole. After all, if this was their home, he couldn't offend Sheik. "I just wanted to help," he mumbled. Sheik seemed to accept the answer because he shrugged it off and went back to his eggs.

There was a long silence between them. Questions filled Link's head, but a fog of disorder and chaos in the back of his mind made him unable to voice any. All he could worry about was getting this place cleaned up. Did no one think to clean the dishes? To sweep? To vacuum? Link wasn't exactly a clean-freak by nature, but this was a little too overwhelming to wake up to. Or maybe he was having a freakish dream where he was doing the dishes and acting like a maid, and would wake up to Epona nudging him, begging for an apple from his bag.

It had all felt so real; more real than this, anyway.

"We should swing by Zelda's shop and let her know you're awake. Do you feel well enough to go out? I kind of need to get groceries and stuff too. Promised the Queen Bee I would, you know? I don't know if I want to leave you hanging out here alone."

"Do you not trust me here?" If Sheik did, he would just clean. Not that the other really knew that part.

The man sighed heavily. "Of course I trust you, but you've been out for a while. I thought you were dead. If you pass out again and hit your head, I wouldn't be here to find out. You do it again, though, you're going to a hospital. I don't care how much it costs."

So they were low on money. That was easy to figure out by the apartment, though. "Why don't we just go cut down some grass?"

Sheik didn't say anything. The silence between them was thick, and when Link finally turned to look at him to see if he was listening, he found Sheik staring at him as though he had just told him that the world was made of pudding. "Excuse me," he asked.

"… cut down- nevermind." Link was beginning to miss the other world.

"You're not staying here alone," Sheik said firmly, bringing his dishes to the sink. Link scrubbed them as well. Sheik stood behind him. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but Link didn't question it. Finally, Sheik disappeared into one of the rooms; Link could hear the door shut and let out a sigh of relief as he continued to clean silently. It was the only thing that seemed to put his mind in some amount of ease, but…

Where was he? Link didn't know what would happen now that he had woken up. Maybe this was another one of Zelda's games. Which one was reality, though?

Shaking his head, he tried to forget about it. When he finished the stack of dishes, Link cleaned up the counters as best as he could before Sheik finally came out of the bathroom, his hair braided neatly down his back. Link wondered briefly how he had managed to do it, but figured that if Sheik had long hair, it must have taken practice to control in the first place. "Go get dressed and we'll go, okay?"

Link rubbed his neck. "Okay, but… where are my clothes?" Sheik rubbed his temples lightly. He wasn't sure if he could handle this, and Link wasn't sure he liked being a burden to someone he had felt like he had never met before. "Sorry," he quickly added.

"It's not your fault. Those damned…" Sheik sighed. "It's cruel the way they carry on like they own the world," he mumbled, "C'mon, I'll get you some clothes."

Drying off his hands, Link followed the other down the hall to one of the rooms in the back. There were two. Link thought there were three people living here. He must have usually slept on the couch. Of course, when he went into the room, he found clothes that seemed to suit, not only him, but Sheik as well. "I keep my things in here with you?"

Sheik nodded slowly. He didn't seem to know how to answer the question; Link thought it had been an easy one to answer. Sheik grabbed a pair of jeans, boxers, t-shirt and hoodie for Link before he went out of the room and closed the door behind him. Link took that as a signal to change and did so.

This room, as he had suspected earlier, was also cluttered. Mostly, there was laundry everywhere. A few books. There were tons of CDs, though on a small shelf in the corner. So many that the shelf couldn't hold them all. The closet was overflowing with clothes, and Link wasn't sure which were dirty and which were clean. The mattress was covering most of the floor: a huge mattress with sheets and blankets thrown over it; a pillow in one corner, another at the head of the bed and another thrown across the room into a small, round chair.

The chair, though, could not be sat in. It had a box filled with various items: more books, notebooks, clothes, shoes, more CDs, games, pictures, light bulbs. It seemed to just hold whatever couldn't fit anywhere else in the small room. Link found some socks in a drawer in the closet and figured that if they weren't his, Sheik would forgive him. He slipped them on and tried to find what shoes were his. He settled on a pair of black and white tennis shoes that fit his feet.

Coming out of the room, he peeked out at Sheik almost timidly. "I'm ready, I guess." To go outside? He couldn't imagine what that would be like, but this clutter was starting to get to him. He was used to being outside in the wide open. Sheik nodded and put on a blue scarf before grabbing a key ring and wallet and heading for the door.

Link followed, hoping something would seem at least a tiny bit familiar to him. Anything, in fact.

When they went down the stairs and out the door, though, Link was hit by the smell and thickness of smog. The large, tall buildings were suffocating to him; this was not Hyrule Field. This was not open, not lush and green. Sheik noticed the frown on his face and seemed to look down as well, though the lower half of his face was covered with the scarf.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he continued to follow after Sheik, unsure if he could survive in a world like this. If he had done it once, though, surely he could do it again. If there had been a time before this. If he could ever remember, that is, something other than his beautiful… dream.

As they made their way down the quiet, cold streets, Link only had one thing on his mind: he shouldn't have ever woken up.


End file.
